Oh dear, Kevin, son. Look, it’s cool to want to leave, we all enjoy a refreshing change of scenery now and then. But go to the Wizards or Blazers or Raptors or somewhere fun. Even the Lakers, hell. You don’t leave the franchise you helped raise from the ground to sign with the team that just knocked you out of the playoffs, mate. That is bad form.

Kevin Durant is a Golden State Warrior. Two years with a player option on the second, US$54.3m all up. Naturally he announced it on the Players’ Tribune, where he talked about growing as a player, moving out of his comfort zone and personal growth. The bottom line is that a former MVP and multiple scoring champion is leaving the Western Conference finalists to join a 73-win NBA Finalist team with a title the season before and the reigning scoring champ and two-time reigning MVP. The winningest regular season team in history just got a whole lot better.

It’s come with a few roster casualties but the Warriors are going to be able to field a starting line-up that features Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. Zaza Pachulia at centre, by the sounds of it, but you know they have a funny relationship with centres. Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston on the bench. It may be tough for Joe Lacob and Bob Myers, owner and GM, to fill out the rest of the roster but they’ll find a way. Pachulia’s taken a pay-cut to join them. Others will to.

This is not a move that is pleasing too many NBA fans. From the forsaken in Oklahoma City to the millions of neutral fans who felt like they had a chance at something next season until this happened. Everybody wants to win a championship… and this is what happens now.

With the cap rising this kind of thing is going to become a little easier to do, uniting stars. And this isn’t the first example either. LeBron to the Heat was probably the forbearer of this – though if it were possible in the old days then it would have happened then too, there just wasn’t as much money going around and so if the Lakers or Celtics didn’t come calling, players tended to sit tight.

But this particular situation is only really possible by the complete anomaly of Steph Curry being the fourth highest paid player on his team. Durant, Green and Thompson are all getting more cash – at least in salary. Endorsements are another deal altogether. No other team as stacked as this has ever had such flexibility. Curry should be getting way more but he signed a big extension before his recent breakout seasons. By the way, it’s easy to forget this given their trajectories but Steph Curry is actually five and a half months older than Kevin Durant.

The Warriors now have on paper perhaps the most loaded roster in the history of the game – especially as far as shooting goes. But, you know… I believe Rudy Gobert says it best:

There’s only one ball. Unless KD/Steph/Klay start averaging 80 between them each game then somebody is going to have to make sacrifices. And when sacrifices are made then team spirit can often suffer. Serge Ibaka was traded by the Thunder on draft day because they knew he’d probably leave in free agency a year later given he wasn’t getting the role he wanted/was used to. Durant has played his career in a system with Russell Westbrook that has always fallen back on those two players’ ability to create their own shots. That’s how the Thunder looked to get that crucial late bucket in the last minute of games: just give it to KD or Russ, three or four pump-fakes later and a shot goes up. Not a lot of technicality in that, as effective as it may have been. Durant won’t get that luxury any longer, this is Steph’s team and they move the ball around at speed. Players as good as this usually make it work but just saying… this may not be the slam dunk fit it looks like on paper.

Still, remember how Steph Curry and Klay Thompson alternated the pressure in the playoffs when one was off and the other was forced to take over? That pressure won’t be there when Kevin Durant is also there. Shooting is shooting, it trumps all else in a game where points are the truest currency.

As for the Thunder, this is not good. They had no free agency plan B, it was retain Kevin Durant or else… but we all thought they’d get that done. Now it’ll be a mad scramble to replace their best player all in a hurry, with about $20m in cap space available to them. Do they spend that on Dion Waiters? Yeah, hmm.

But they’re in a much better position than most teams would be if their best dude walked for nothing. They still have Russell Westbrook, a top ten player in the NBA, and some kiwi bloke named Steven Adams has done some decent things recently. Victor Oladipo and Enes Kanter too, this is a team that will still be able to score plenty, it’s just that from being a two-superstar team it’s now a one-superstar team. Here’s the thing with that: It could be great for them.

The stumbling block is that Russell Westbrook could leave in FA next year himself. That’s an option to consider and having lost KD this way, if the Thunder don’t believe they can compete with Russ this season and decide he’s likely to walk… the trade block becomes a very real option. And they’ll get stacks for Westbrook, he’ll improve almost any team in the league.

Except what if he doesn’t want to leave, and what if he thrives as the undisputed leader of the team? The Thunder now plan to sort out an extension with him that’ll precede any talks of trades or such and Russ might just be getting exactly what he wants: Control. Dominance. Influence. His union with Durant was pretty flawless off the court but sometimes it didn’t all click on it. Only sometimes, granted. And while Durant was a quiet leader by example, Westbrook is a furious force of a player. He won’t just expect players to improve, he’ll demand it. He’s the closest thing to Kobe Bryant left in the league in that regard, even Draymond Green can’t compete.

The outlines of the new Thunder offence are already in place. The Adams/Westbrook pick and roll. Andre Roberson’s and Victor Oladipo’s patchy outside shooting becomes more of an issue without Durant around them but then both did show signs towards the end of last season there. Given that Russ is a rubbish three point shooter himself, that’s a worry for this team if he’s carrying the keys – but they can surround them with three point hoopers – playing the midrange game isn’t really suiting to them and playing slow is impossible when Westbrook openly takes on 1v5 fast breaks. Domantas Sabonis is a prospect with real potential. Cam Payne, their 2015-16 rookie point guard, is as well – supposing he can learn to play a bit of defence. Mitch McGary and Josh Huestis have tools to work with. Durant or not they can still be challenging for a top four seed, if not the title. Billy Donovan is a very good NBA coach and he’s already proved that.

The Serge Ibaka trade supposedly had no impact on KD’s decision. The team said as much. Sam Presti also said that they had a “pretty good indication” that Durant was gonna walk. So 1+1=2 and that suggests that they might have made the Ibaka trade in the knowledge that they were preparing for life without Durant. They sure got a great haul in return. As well as Sabonis and Oladipo they also grabbed Ersan Ilyasova for good measure. Ilyasova would have been a buyout candidate, while his compatriot Enes Kanter was shopped as they considered a run at Al Horford. Those guys will probably still be around now, which is very handy. Even without Ibaka and Durant the Thunder should maintain that same super-tall, versatile strategy that saw them so well against the Spurs. That could well be the future: length and defensive versatility. Well, they’ll have length at least – though they’re not replacing Durant’s defensive capabilities any time soon. Still, with Adams able to go to work on power forwards now, the Stache Bros combination is gonna see plenty more court time this season. Both Adams and Kanter will come out of this with roles enhanced.

Adams already got that with the Ibaka trade. They don’t flip their best defender without knowing that they have another dude coming through to take up that responsibility. That was a clear vote of confidence in Adams. Durant leaving… that wasn’t a vote cast so much as a ball dropping. First they indicated their confidence in him to fill the gap… now they’re forced to see that through. Big season coming up for the kiwi centre that won so many fans those last playoffs. If he truly is a top five centre, we’re about to find out (it helps that most teams don’t rely on traditional big men these days – not those that can’t shoot from outside the paint. But when everyone else is zigging, that’s the time to zag, so they say).

By the way, there’s no way Adams takes it personally but Durant leaving him to join the team of the player that kicked him in the nuts multiple times that playoff run isn’t exactly the strongest act of solidarity out there. Then again, Durant isn’t the kind to let those things bother him… Russell Westbrook is. He holds grudges and he’d probably find it tough to consider playing for a rival. Remember when they asked him about Curry’s defence on Russ in the playoffs and he just laughed? Yeah, Westbrook believes himself the best player in the league. That’s the secret to what he does. And if they win 55 more games with him and Steve, then Westbrook might finally get that credit on a few more MVP ballots. Westbrook’s done well without Durant before – think back to that run of triple-doubles in early 2015. Not a sustainable usage rate but encouraging all the same.

Which is reminiscent of Damian Lillard keeping the Trail Blazers relevant last season after losing every other starter. Think what an unleashed Westbrook can do. Either way, it’ll be bloody exciting.

You know who the secret winners in all of this were though? The bloody Dallas Mavericks. Only a few months after Kevin Durant publically called Mark Cuban an “idiot”, he just saved the Mavs owner’s arse by taking up enough cap space in GSW that they had to trade Andrew Bogut to the notoriously centre-less Mavs as well as renouncing Harrison Barnes’ restricted rights… and guess who had already offered him a max contract? Yeah, the same Dallas team that has horrifically whiffed on all their free agency eggs over the last five years. From being shunned by Dwight Howard and Deron Williams (when he was good) to the DeAndre Jordan fiasco, this year they targeted Hassan Whiteside and Mike Conley… both of whom quickly re-signed with their old teams. And not only that but Mike Conley took Mavs SF Chandler Parsons with him back to Memphis – Dallas effectively dumping him to chase other options.

Yet somehow they’ve ended up with a starting five that’ll probably read: Deron Williams, Wes Matthews, Harrison Barnes, Dirk Nowitzki and Andrew Bogut. Now, the health of numbers 1, 2 and 5 is a real factor, as is the age of 4 and the consistency of 3 but that’s a lot better than they were staring at a few days ago with Devon Harris, Matthews, Nobody, Maybe Dirk and Anybody. Sometimes you just get lucky.

And in one extra way because Dirk Nowitzki hasn’t technically re-signed with Dallas yet. He presumably wants to but had opted out just in case with a history of horrible free agency builds in Dallas. Naturally, the Warriors started leaking press that they would be very aggressive in free agency, and that if KD were to turn them down then they’d take a look at Dirk. Which was a very strong statement from Lacub/Mayers, declaring their intentions to go after two iconic faces of franchises is not entirely cool. The Warriors do like to flaunt themselves to the masses though.

Dirk was a backup option for them though. With the Warriors far and away faves and not able to give him anything short of a veteran’s minimum (we know Dirk has left money on the table before but come on) then he’s about 99.9% certain to return to Dallas after all this. Two more seasons and he joins Kobe Bryant as the only other player with 20 seasons for a single team.

Funnily, the Mavs also signed Seth Curry, adding to their developing Warriors-Lite team for next season. Which is nice and poetic because Rick Carlisle’s 2011 championship side was one of the three main influences upon the run and gun Warriors that developed under Steve Kerr. Always making the extra pass, utilising the three point line, stacking shooters around a defence first centre. Obviously the Warriors took it much further and eventually did away with the centre completely in key situations but it’s cute to see that come full circle. The other two major influences would be the Steve Nash Suns and the 2013 Spurs. Mix ‘em up and see what you get.

As you read this, know that there are Durant 35 jerseys burning in the streets of Oklahoma City. Know also that Tim Duncan chose this frantic day of all days to leak the news that he’s strongly considering retirement. The Spurs just signed Pau Gasol to be a clear replacement but of course they have a contingency plan. Isn’t that the most Tim Duncan thing imaginable though? Paving the path for retirement on the biggest free agency decision since LeBron -> Miami? No, Timmy, you don’t get to walk away unnoticed, not after all we’ve been through.

Now that Kevin Durant is signing with the Warriors, that game six performance by Klay Thompson against the Thunder takes an even more legendary stance. There’s no way Durant would have joined the Warriors if the Thunder had won that series. Surely not. So Klay’s inconceivable 41 points not only saved the Warriors’ season facing elimination but they’ve now also ended the Durant/Westbrook era for the Thunder. An era that ends with one Finals appearance and four trips to the Western Conference deciders.

Similarly it was a round earlier that Tim Duncan was kept scoreless for the only time in his NBA playoff career, helplessly and finally showing his age against Steven Adams and the Oklahoma City Thunder. It’s strange how these things work out.